Correlating AFM Probe Morphology to Image Resolution for Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Tips

Wade, L. A.; Shapiro, Ian R.; Ma, Ziyang; Quake, Stephen R.; Collier, C. Patrick

doi:10.1021/nl049976q

Cited by 74 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Carbon nanotubes may provide an interesting alternative for the tip-on-aperture, approach since they have unique electronic and optical properties and have small diameters [42]. Furthermore, they can be lifted off a substrate directly by an AFM probe, and can then be repeatedly shortened to precise lengths using simple procedures (see following sections) [43], [44].…”

Section: Apertureless Near-field Microscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, a number of techniques for attaching nanotubes to AFM probes have been developed, enabling individual nanotubes to be manipulated and positioned with nanometer-scale precision [43], [44], [56]- [63]. The attached nanotubes are generally stable, and, due to their small diameters (1-10 nm) and high axial stiffness [64], [65], they exhibit very fine resolution in scanning probe microscopy applications [44]. Once attached, the nanotubes can be shortened in precise steps from micrometers to nanometers, enabling optical measurements with a single, well-characterized probe [43].…”

Section: Carbon Nanotubesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In push shortening, an attached nanotube can be slid up the side of an AFM tip simply by pushing the distal end onto a hard surface [44]. This technique works well for nanotubes below ∼200 nm in length and can produce extremely precise (∼2 nm) shortening steps.…”

Section: A Fabrication and Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanoscale Fluorescence Microscopy Using Carbon Nanotubes

Mangum

Xie

et al. 2008

IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron.

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Abstract-We demonstrate the first reported use of single-walled carbon nanotubes as nano-optical probes in apertureless nearfield fluorescence microscopy. We show that, in contrast to silicon probes, carbon nanotubes always cause strong fluorescence quenching when used to image dye-doped polystyrene spheres and Cd-Se quantum dots. For quantum dots, the carbon nanotubes induce very strong near-field contrast with a spatial resolution of ∼20 nm. Images of dye-doped spheres exhibit crescent-shaped artifacts caused by distortions in the surface water layer found in ambient conditions. Index Terms-Atomic force microscopy (AFM), carbon nanotubes, fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence quenching, nanooptics, near-field optics.

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Section: Apertureless Near-field Microscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Carbon Nanotubesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanoscale Fluorescence Microscopy Using Carbon Nanotubes

Mangum

Xie

et al. 2008

IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron.

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“…In the future, it may be possible to image samples in a wet environment to measure dynamic processes in molecular-scale structural biology. Finally, it may also be possible to use carbon single-wall nanotubes attached to AFM probes [25,26] to further improve spatial resolution .FIG. 4 (color).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tip-Enhanced Fluorescence Microscopy at 10 Nanometer Resolution

et al. 2004

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We demonstrate unambiguously that the field enhancement near the apex of a laser-illuminated silicon tip decays according to a power law that is moderated by a single parameter characterizing the tip sharpness. Oscillating the probe in intermittent contact with a semiconductor nanocrystal strongly modulates the fluorescence excitation rate, providing robust optical contrast and enabling excellent background rejection. Laterally encoded demodulation yields images with <10 nm spatial resolution, consistent with independent measurements of tip sharpness. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.180801 PACS numbers: 07.79.Fc, 42.50.Hz, 61.46.+w, 78.67.Bf The potential of near-field microscopy to optically resolve structure well below the diffraction limit has excited physicists, chemists, and biologists for almost 20 years. Conventional near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) uses the light forced through a small metal aperture to locally excite or detect an optical response. The spatial resolution in NSOM is limited to 30 -50 nm by the penetration depth of light into the metal aperture. More recently, apertureless-NSOM (ANSOM) techniques were developed which leverage the strong enhancement of an externally applied optical field at the apex of a sharp tip for local excitation of the sample [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The promised advantage of ANSOM is that spatial resolution should be limited only by tip sharpness (typically 10 nm). The resolution in most previous ANSOM experiments, however, was at best marginally better than NSOM and was inferior to expectations based on tip sharpness alone. Further, the external field used to induce enhancement led to a substantial background signal and to assertions that one-photon fluorescence is not appropriate for ANSOM [12,13]. These experiments fell short of their potential because they maintained a tip-sample gap of several nanometers, and thus did not thoroughly exploit the tightly confined enhancement.Here, we demonstrate an ANSOM technique that fully exploits the available contrast and leads to spatial resolution that is limited only by tip sharpness. The problems associated with a tip-sample gap are overcome by oscillating the probe in intermittent contact with the sample. The detected signal is then composed of a modulated near-field portion that is superimposed on the far-field background. Subsequent demodulation decouples the two components and thus strongly elevates the near-field signal relative to the background. With this technique, we measured <10 nm lateral resolution via one-photon fluorescence imaging of isolated quantum dots, consistent with independent measurements of tip sharpness. The measured resolution is >3 times better than previous reports for quantum dots using one-photon fluorescence [8,9], and is 2 times better than previous measurements using higher-order optical processes (two-photon fluorescence [6], Raman scattering [4,5]) despite predictions to the contrary [12,13].To better understand the advantages of this technique and to facilitate ...

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“…The tools developed include generalized techniques for the growth and attachment of nanotubes for use in AFM imaging. With our nanotube tips we have generated 0.5 nm resolution AFM images, potentially enabling optical imaging of single-molecules with resolutions approaching 1 nm [2]. In addition these nanotube probes can be uniquely functionalized at their tips, serving as the foundation of an effort to develop singlemolecule sensors.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-Biomolecule Resolution Imaging with an Optical Microscope

Wade

Collier

Fraser

2005

MAM

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A Fluorescence Apertureless Near-field Scanning Optical Microscope (FANSOM) has been developed with FWHM optical resolution below 10 nm when imaging at ~600 nm wavelengths [1]. The apparatus combines an epi fluorescence optical microscope and an atomic force microscope (AFM) to obtain single-molecule sensitivity and optical resolution limited by the sharpness of the AFM probe. The AFM probe is used to stimulate or reduce the detected fluorescence emission rate depending on the AFM tip material and the polarization of the excitation light. The probe-sample interaction is described by near-field dipole-dipole physics, resulting in a stimulated emission rate that varies by r 6 . When tapping the probe over the substrate being imaged, the near-field component is sharply modulated at that tapping frequency, thereby enabling separation from the far-field background during post-processing. Images of fluorescent single-molecules taken in a physiological environment will be presented.We are also developing probe and substrate technologies to enable FANSOM to image and timeresolve the dynamics of biomolecular interactions. The tools developed include generalized techniques for the growth and attachment of nanotubes for use in AFM imaging. With our nanotube tips we have generated 0.5 nm resolution AFM images, potentially enabling optical imaging of single-molecules with resolutions approaching 1 nm [2]. In addition these nanotube probes can be uniquely functionalized at their tips, serving as the foundation of an effort to develop singlemolecule sensors. Coating these probes with Teflon has enabled fabrication molecular-scale electrical probes [3]. Silane-chemistry dip-pen nanolithography techniques have been developed for patterning glass coverslips with functional proteins, peptides, aptamers, etc. [4,5]. By combining FANSOM with these techniques we anticipate patterning functional biomolecules onto glass coverslips and then individually characterizing highly specific molecular interactions at in-vivo-like molecular concentrations. In addition, these tools will prove relevant for characterizing cellular contents and expression with single-molecule discrimination using nanoarrays and molecular circuits. Finally, techniques are being developed for patterning phospholipid bilayers for use as model membrane systems. Together, these tools should prove particularly well suited for probing bio-interface problems such as viral insertion, transmembrane protein triggering and lipid raft formation and function.

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Correlating AFM Probe Morphology to Image Resolution for Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Tips

Cited by 74 publications

References 22 publications

Nanoscale Fluorescence Microscopy Using Carbon Nanotubes

Nanoscale Fluorescence Microscopy Using Carbon Nanotubes

Tip-Enhanced Fluorescence Microscopy at 10 Nanometer Resolution

Single-Biomolecule Resolution Imaging with an Optical Microscope

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